UK House Prices Reach Almost 10% Rise In A Year

The UK housing market has seen some volatility in the past but, compared to April 2013, the same month this year saw house prices go up 9.9%, according to official figures. Moreover, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that if numbers for April 2014 were compared to the previous month of March, when the increase was around 8%, there’s reason to believe the market is gaining speed again.

Furthermore, the good news is that even though London, with prices up 18.7%, has been the driving force behind the market’s resurgence, places that once lagged behind, like Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, are now catching up, the ONS said.

However, with the exception of areas like London and East England, house prices were still 6.3% higher than a year ago. This raised concern among experts, and that’s why the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, said actions will be taken if it is needed. Also, the soaring house prices in London set off alarms among luminaries because while prices rise fast, they rise even faster compared to the average bump in pay (0.9%), BBC business correspondent Andy Verity wrote.

And while Verity is asking whether there’s a reliable measure of what house price inflation is doing to the cost of living, house inflation in April – higher than that in March – was 10.4% in England, 3.3% in Wales, 4.8% in Scotland and 2.6% in Northern Ireland.